Nissan Entering 24 Hours of LeMans With GT-R LM NISMO

Nissan announced today they will be heading to the 24 Hours of LeMans next year, this time in a big way.

While Nissan has been playing in France with GT-R-based and Deltawing programmes, the Japanese company is looking to take on Audi, Porsche, and Toyota in the top flight LMP1 category with their Nissan GT-R LM NISMO.

In a video shown along with the press release, Andy Palmer, Chief Planning Officer and Executive Vice President, states the name of the car should give people a good idea what they’re bringing to the track. However, Nissan did not fully reveal their entry.

Nissan is aiming to be the “bad boy” entry, states Palmer, who also said the new regulations, which reward energy efficiency, should be an advantage for the NISMO team.

“We applaud the ACO and FIA for the work they have done to get the rules right,” said Palmer. “LM P1 is not just an arms race. All our rivals in the class have taken different technical approaches, and we will be doing the same. We want to win in a very different way to that of our rivals. We won’t be turning up in a vehicle, which is a basically another hybrid that looks like another Porsche, Audi or Toyota – they all look the same to me. Our intention is to do something that is a little bit different.”

Mark Stevenson is a former IT professional turned automotive journalist. He is also Autos.ca's news editor. Mark spends an inordinate amount of time on two wheels, and lives with his dogs Nismo and Maloo.